Shattered Light
by White-Owl-Snow-Tigress
Summary: AU - I guess. All Willow wanted to do was hang out with her friends, but her parents had other ideas. She finds herself fighting to stay alive, finding love during possibly the worst times, and learning about what really happens underneath London.
1. Chapter 1

**AN: I had this idea for awhile. It drove me crazy till I wrote it down.**

**Pairings: Eventual Willow/Tara/Oz triangle, Some one-sided Tara/Sara, Eventual Sara/Xander**

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters that you recognize from Buffy: The Vampire Slayer. Any other characters that you don't recognize are of my own design. **

* * *

Shattered Light

Chapter 1

_"Just this one time, Willow dear, so enjoy it," The tall noblewoman said as she looked disgustingly at the carnival people. _

_ The small girl wiggled out of her mothers grasp, dashing towards one of the games in the back. She smiled innocently at the man behind the counter as she politely asked, "How do you play?"_

_ "Just toss the ball inta da hoop. You'la win a pretty prize if ya do," The grubby man said as he blew out a puff of cigar smoke. "Free a charge for the likkle lady."_

_ The girl picked up the faded red ball, under handing it right into the hoop. But the ball just dipped in and shot out, leaving the girl disgruntled and angry. "Why don't ya just try again? It's all 'bout luck."_

_ He held out another ball, making sure to keep it firmly in his grasp. He smiled, no smirked evilly, as Willow made a move to take the ball to try again. _

_ "I w-wouldn't," A voice softly spoke. _

_ The girl whipped around to see another girl, a year older perhaps, wearing grubby clothing. Her dirty blond hair fell over her face as she continued, "I-If I w-w-w-were y-you. I-It's a-always r-rigged." _

_ The man fumed as his plan had been ruined. He could tell that the blond girl knew what his true intentions were, which is why she had stopped him by using an excuse that was also true. Though he had enough of seeing the blond girl, and her making a show of scaring off his customers and prey. _

_ The blond girl gripped Willow's arm as the man lunged forwards. He brought his clenched fist close to the blond girl's covered face as he snarled, "You ain't scaring' away me money. Oh no, not again. Leave, you ain't welcome nowhere."_

_ "I-I j-just w-was," The girl stuttered out as she dragged Willow away with her. "B-by the w-way."_

_ "Sharp tongues alwas have bad luck," The man growled as he puffed on his cigar again. "If I see ya face round here again, there's Hell to pay."_

_ "You have no idea," The blond girl breathed out, which Willow just barely caught. _

_ The man blew out some smoke as he watch the two girls leave. He muttered something about how he hated 'that bitch' and would do anything to 'stop her from scaring away the game.'_

_ The girl stopped once they reached an alcove at the end of the carnival. She still found herself gripping onto Willow, who looked shaken. The girl let Willow out of her grip, letting the arm fall limply to her side._

_ "S-Sorry," She breathed out quickly, ducking her head._

_ "There's no need to be," Willow found herself saying as she took a seat next to the other girl._

_ The girl turned her head slightly towards Willow, showing a quirky half smile as she looked at the ground. Willow found her hand moving the hair from the other girls face, finding herself face-to-face with the most beautiful girl she had ever met. _

_ "Willow!" The shrill call bounced through the walls as the girl flinched away from Willow's touch. _

_ "Y-you s-should g-go," The blond girl said sadly as she looked away._

_ "Yeah," Willow said as she got up. "I guess I should."_

_ The girl whipped her head around, surprising Willow when she bravely said, "When will I see you again? I mean, you do live around here. Maybe we could hang out again?"_

_ "I'd love that," Willow said with a smile as she turned away. "But what's your name?"_

_ "....." The blond sighed before the everything faded to black._

* * *

**12 Years Later**

'_It's that same memory again. It's got to mean something.'_

Willow darted along the alley, taking great care not to be seen. The streets of London seemed to grow quieter as the years went by, making it easier for the girl to sneak unnoticed during the night. She had just woken up from sleeping in after her last night out with the gang that she hung out with.

They weren't that bad. They just met up at the rundown house close enough to the Night Club and where the Carnival use to be held. The sight of the familiar rickety gate jared Willow out of her thoughts as she slipped along the overgrown path and into the door.

"You're late, Rosenberg," A feminine voice growled.

Willow just glared at the bigger, brown haired girl. Willow's most hated 'friend' had to be Sara Anderson. The other girl was blunt with her words and just naturally rubbed the wrong side of many people. If that wasn't enough, she was a total slut going after anyone despite their gender.

"By whose clock?" Willow growled out as Sara got up from the table she had been sitting on.

"Lets just leave," Sara growled as she roughly pushed past Willow. "I need to let out some tension."

"You mean that you just want to get hot and laid outright," Willow grumbled to Sara's back as the brown haired girl disappeared out the door.

"Don't let Sara rile you up so much," The other person in the room said as she grabbed his coat. "I'm not one for those classy bitch-fights that Xander likes so much."

"I'll try not to Dan, no promises though," Willow said as the boy grinned with relief. "But if we do fight, it's all her fault."

"Of course," Dan said as he held the door pen for Willow.

Despite Dan's tendency of being gay, he was still quite the charming man that girls fell for. Another person that Sara hates, if only because she can't have some fun with the guy. He was also one of Willow's longtime, guy best friend that she could almost relate too.

* * *

**4 Minutes Later**

The odd duo finally reached the Night Club, which was ironically called 'The Night Club,' it being the only one in this part of London. Sara waved them over as she slipped inside, probably having already spotted her first victim.

Both Willow and Dan sighed at the same time, giving each other a look before following Sara into the club just as it was getting into full swing. They easily spotted Sara talking with another blond girl. Willow just rolled her eyes as she flopped down on the couch while Dan leaned against the back of the couch, trying to look cool.

"Wills," A somewhat deep voice said happily as Willow found herself being hold in a tight embrace, normally known to others as a hug.

"Xander," Willow wheezed out as the boy let go off her with a muttered apology. "Long time no see."

"Ditto," Xander said as he composed himself. "And I see that the gang's still the same as I had left it. Dan acting the cool, heartbreaker role to the watching chicks while Sara is trying to get laid by someone. And you're the same."

Willow just shrugged as Xander spoke. She wasn't one to change who she was, if only because this Willow was good. And because she tried a spell to see what her other side was, and she didn't like the slutty-ness that was just like Sara.

"This is getting oddly boring," Sara said as she plopped herself down on the other couch that sat across from the one that Willow and Xander where sitting on. "Besides, there's no one here that speaks out to me."

This statement earned the girl chuckles and shrugs as she glared at her friends.

"Aren't you guys suppose to be supportive of my actions? Hey, why don't we check out the place where the carnival use to be? They say it's haunted," She said.

"Because checking out a supposedly haunted Carnival ground is what we all call a nice, relaxing night that was suppose to be a reunion for the whole group," Xander said as he jumped onto his feet. "I'm in."

Willow rolled her eyes. Now she knew why she didn't bother to remember some things about Xander, he always liked Sara and would always try to impress her. If only the boy knew that she herself was sporting a crush on him. One she had ever since she first met him and became his friend.

Sara smirked as she lead the group out of the Night Club and strode along the old, well worn path. The path grew steep as it ended before a barren brown field that seemed to stretch out for miles. Sara confidently lead the group into the barren fields, hoping that she could scare her friends with some tricks that she had set up.

Willow heard a soft crunch. Trailing curiously towards the noise, she left her friends behind wearing confused looks.

Xander and Dan looked at each other, Dan shrugging his shoulders while Xander just sighed. Sara silently fumed at Willow, her plan had been busted without even getting a chance to start. She just had to go off to God knows where because of God knows what.

Another soft crunch, sounding strangely like someone was moving not too far from Willow's position as she trailed after the noise.

She pushed past a stubborn pile of large grass to spot another girl. The other girl hadn't noticed her yet, which was probably a good thing. A murky stream sluggishly flowed near to the girl as she just sat on a rock and looked down at it.

_Willow met the same girl again, but years later. It was in this same particular spot, with the other girl in the same spot doing the same thing. _

_ "Hey," Willow said softly as she stood hesitantly by the large grass. _

_ "H-Hey," The other girl stammered as she looked at Willow. She didn't move, and an uncomfortable silence drifted on them._

_ "O-Oh! T-Ta-take a s-seat," The girl said stuttered out as she moved over to make room on the rock for Willow._

_ Willow smiled, walking over towards the rock. She found it quite difficult to get herself on top of the rock, and let out a gasp of surprise went she felt deft hands helping her. She sprawled on top of the rock, gasping for air while the other girl just gave a half-smirk. _

_ "Thanks," Willow grunted out as she looked over at her new friend._

_ The girl just smiled shyly before ducking to hide her face behind her hair. _

The memory had surfaced on her mind as she silently watched the scene. She felt the same emotions as she had that one day, one of the few that she had shared with that girl. Looking closer at the other person, her mind worked franticly to decipher the meaning behind the memory.

_'Could it be? No.' _Willow thought as she scrunched up her face.

_'It's the same girl!' _Willow exclaimed in her mind as she finally realized it.

"Where are you? Rosenberg!" Sara's voice called, startling the girl on the rock.

The girl tumbled off it, grunting as she landed on her stomach. She seemed to get over her shock quickly, as she she soon disappeared away from Willow's vision.

"There you are," Dan said, relief etched in his voice.

Willow turned around, glaring at her friends. She caught herself, looking away from them when she remembered that she had left them to find out what that alluring noise was.

"Since we found you, and nothing else," Sara said as she sauntered towards the old path. "Let's just go back to our homes. Besides, it's getting close to dawn anyways. Don't want to worry the folks again, though I do love doing that."

Xander followed right after her, looking in all the world like a puppy lost in love. Dan hung back, worriedly looking at Willow as the girl didn't move.

"Are you okay?" Dan asked with obvious concern.

"Other than Xander liking Sara and not me," Willow said. "Okay. Nothing's wrong 'cause nothing happened here. Just a little animal that lead me here, a place I've been to before when the Carnival was around. It was fun-"

"I'm going to stop you there, Oh wise Willow Babbleton," Dan said jokingly. "And Xander's so not worth your affection. Not if he likes a sleeve like Sara. And I know when you're lying Will, you weren't lead here by an animal and I want to know why you would lie to me of all people."

"I just- I saw an old friend that disappeared awhile ago," Willow sighed as she slowly walked.

"The one that made you cry for nights before you finally got over it and started to follow Xander around more than usual?" Dan inquired as he remembered the time that Willow was talking about.

The girl didn't want to see anyone, not Dan even, and they always worried about her. Once she seemed to get over whatever was wrong with her, she came clean to the gang by telling them about a friend that disappeared. They didn't pressure her on the matter, though Sara would use that information whenever they got into a heated fight about something.

"You saw him," Dan said as he stuffed his hands in his coat pockets. "Just before we came after you."

"Him? Oh, yeah. I forgot to add the little that detail that the 'old friend' was actually a girl," Willow said with a shrug. "It was kind of nostalgic, actually."

"It might have helped," Dan said as they neared Willow's home. "Though, I would recommend that you don't tell Sara. You might see this friend again, and you don't want Sara trying to shag her."

Dan ended the conversation with a knowing wink to Willow before darting away. Willow opened her mouth to protest, not really getting why Dan would say something like that, but since he was already long gone she just closed her mouth and breathed deep before opening the door to her home.

Oh, how she hated her family life.

* * *

**AN: We were thinking of bumping the age from the original thought of T to how it looks to turn to M. We could definitely add some M-rated content to this story, despite our reluctance of wanting to do sex/sex-like scenes. **

**Tried to make it long, failing miserably. But hey, first story so you've got to give us props for courage. *Wink *Wink**

**We worked on just writing some chapters out, to see if we liked this story and the idea. There are Ocs, to which if you would like the 'profiles' of them we will gladly type them up as we work on a much later chapter.**

**And looking back and rereading the story, we see that Sara seems strangely similar to Faith. We didn't plan for that, we just wanted a character that was slutty and who would try to mess up Willow's relationships, and came up with Sara. Don't sue us or anything. :(**

**White-Owl + Snow-Tigress**


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: Ah, yes the second chapter. **

**Pairings: Eventual Willow/Tara/Oz triangle, Some One-sided Tara/Sara, Eventual Sara/Xander**

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters that you recognize from Buffy: The Vampire Slayer. Any other characters that you don't recognize are of my own design.**

* * *

Shattered Light

Chapter 2

The door softly clicked behind Willow as the girl silently walked towards the staircase. She climbed up the first step, one hand clutching on the railing as she hoped that her parents wouldn't notice her coming in late again.

"Willow!" A shrill, feminine voice rang out from the main room of the house, which is located right by the stairs.

Wincing from the voice of her mother, Willow turned around guiltily. Standing before her were both her father and mother in their classy dress suits. She just blinked, having gotten used to her parents just magically appearing in a heart beat whenever they were pissed at her. Which they always were.

"We were suppose to go to Mrs. Summers house, to help her with the strange disappearance of her daughter. But since you were inconveniently gone, we had to stay here and wait as we hoped that you would return so that we may go out," Her father said stiffly, drawling on a few choice words.

"Then maybe you shouldn't have waited," Willow muttered to herself. "You knew that I don't come home until late."

"Don't mutter back to us young lady," Mrs. Rosenberg said sharply, clearly pissed. "I don't even know why we kept you. There's a nice boarding school that can whip you into a proper young lady, which we ourselves had tried so desperately to do. But you're just a failure to this society."

"You mean that _you're_ the failures, for raising to be this way," Willow retorted. "And I'm not going to some boarding school. I'm almost old enough to live on my own, so you can't make me do something that I don't want to do."

"Until you are of age to be out of our care," Mr. Rosenberg said with a cough. "We still have full authority to send you to the boarding school. We're doing this for your own good, Willow, why can't you see that?"

"Oh yeah, sending me away from my friends to live in a place with children of all ages so that I could grow old to be the person that you want me to be," Willow said as she climbed up the steps. "But I don't want to be that Willow, I want to be me. The me that decides what she wants to do for herself, not the one that's having her parents send her away."

"Willow! Come back down here this instant!" Her mother called up the stairs in vain. "This discussion isn't over young lady!"

"Calm down, honey," Mr. Rosenberg said as he gently gripped his wife's shoulders. "She'll see soon enough that we're doing her a favor."

***While upstairs in Willow's Room**

"Arghh!" Willow grunted as she flopped her body onto her bed.

She felt like punching something or screaming into her pillow, but she thought better of it as she shuffled under her bed. She smiled once her hand bumped against a book of some sort. Gripping it, she brought it onto the bed in front of her. Flipping through the pages, she stopped at the last page.

With a pen in hand, she silently wrote, _You there Danny?_

Another line appeared underneath what Willow wrote. _Oh course. I'm always here for you._

Willow smiled as she read that line over again, remembering the time when she had gotten this magickal book from Dan himself as a birthday present. He had said that whenever she wanted to talk to him in private, to write on the last page so that they could 'talk' to the other. It was comforting, knowing that her longtime friend was just a page away.

_They're sending me to a boarding school._

Sharp and to the point. Willow could almost see Dan's reaction as the words appeared on the page. She thought a moment before daring herself to see what Dan had actually wrote.

_Then you should leave first. Crash at my place or something._

Willow smiled. Dan always knew what to do in situations like this. Thinking it over, she liked the idea. Since her parents didn't care about her and were sending her away anyways, she should just 'disappear' before they get the chance that they wanted. No satisfaction for them.

This brought a smirk to Willow's lips as she continued to write: _Nice idea. I would love to leave this Hell hole, besides, they wanted me gone anyway. I just need to beat them to it._

_ Good way to stay upbeat. I'll be catching you later, then? Before nightfall? _Dan wrote out.

_Yeah. It's a date. _Willow wrote with a smile, teasing the boy.

_Huff. You know, girls write shit like this in their diaries. Not in magick books to their gay guy friends. _

With that, Willow closed the book after reading his parting reply a few times over. She placed the book back underneath her bed before pulling the covers over her body for a little snooze time before she had to actually leave.

* * *

**5 ½ Hours Later**

Willow yawned, glancing over at the mini grandfather clock in her room. She smiled, noting the shadows cast by the sun as well to tell that it was well into the day by now. _'A perfect time to runaway.' _She thought as she got out of her bed. _'It's when they least expect it.'_

Shuffling through her clothes, she packed the most comfortable ones for traveling into a knapsack. Leaving a pair out to change into, Willow also shoved other supplies into the knapsack including some traveling food.

Feeling satisfied, she went into the bathroom with her clothes. She quickly got showered, changed, and ran out of the bathroom with excitement. She caught herself while opening her door, realizing that she was forgetting something very important. Shuffling back under her bed, she quickly grabbed the book and darted out of her room.

She stood stock still at the top of the stairs, listening carefully to the chatter happening downstairs. The sound of her parents came clearly to her ears, sending a wave of nausea through her stomach. The other voice, though, she didn't recognize.

Sucking in a deep breath of air, Willow crept down the stairs. One of the steps let out a soft creaking noise, almost causing Willow to hiss out the breath she was holding. But her parents and the mystery guest didn't seem to hear it as she finally found herself stepping off the last step. She let out the breath she had been holding, turned her head towards the main room of the house.

Peeking around the corner, she watched the scene as she finally actually listened closely to the conversation.

"I would just love to have your daughter join my boarding school," The new woman was saying as she took a sip of wine from one of the guest glasses. "Her profile is absolutely splendid. I'm sure we will have a wonderful time together."

"Good," Mrs. Rosenberg said. "I trust that you will help her along the path to perfect formality and realizing that she is of a higher class then other people."

"But of course," The woman said. "These friends of hers you told me about, do you why she hangs out with them? A specific reason, perhaps? Lack of proper discipline?"

"Rebellious stage," Mr. Rosenberg answered as he sat down with more wine. "First it was all about the Carnival and about this girl she met. Now it's staying out late with lower class tramps and slime."

"I see," The woman said as she put down her empty wine glass. "I'll take great care of her. Make sure she is ready by tomorrow, a room has already been prepared for her."

Willow realized that now was the best time to leave, since the strange woman appeared ready to leave herself. She quickly opened the door, taking great care to close it as quietly as possible while trying to make a quick getaway. She sprinted most of the way to Dan's place, gasping as she finally came into sight of the ransack apartment.

She doubled over before the door, still trying to regain her breath. The door opened, revealing Pete, the apartment owner, wearing a coat and looking like he was heading out somewhere.

"Here ta see Danny boy, are ya?" Pete said warmly and with a smile.

Yeah, he use to give Willow the creeps when she was younger. He was always in a good mood, smiling at the people he came into contact with and acting strangely polite to them to boot. Besides, despite his old age, he was still dating. Which in itself is quite creepy.

"Hey. Pete," Willow said as she straightened her back. "Yeah. He's here, right?"

Pete just nodded, holding the door open just enough for Willow to slip in. The door closed behind her as she walked across the dimly lit reception room. She took the stairs, knowing that Dan lived on the second floor with only a few people in the same hall as him.

"Shit!" Willow cursed as she finally walked down Dan's hall.

She had forgotten which room he was in. Lucky for her, Dan had been waiting just outside his door. He waved her over to his room, smiling at her with pride as he said, "You swore! In public, a place where many people could hear you."

"Enough with the teasing," Willow muttered as she entered into the room. "This is serious. They plan on sending me out tomorrow."

"Sending you where, exactly?" Xander asked as Willow saw his head peeking from the couch.

"Hey Xander," Willow sighed as she glared at Dan. "You didn't bother to tell me that Xander was here."

"You walked right in," Dan said as he seated himself on the over-stuffed, black leather chair. "You're own fault."

"Anyway," Xander said, sweating a little as he stopped a potential fight. "Would you mind filling me in? I mean, I love being out of the loop in all since I haven't been here for awhile. But when my friends are in trouble, I would like to know."

"Willow's parents are sending her to a boarding school," Dan said. "And I'm guessing that the registration/welcome committee to check out people coming to the school had come today."

"They're sending me tomorrow," Willow said as she sat down on the other half of the couch. "They said that they hate you guys and want me to finally become a proper young lady. And they're worried that I might be kinda gay."

"That's horrible," Xander said. "Wait. Kinda gay? When did this come up? Did you, like, kiss another girl or something? And where was I for this?"

"Ah yeah. Willow had the hots for this blond chick. Kissing, stripping..." Dan piped up.

"Make fun of my behavior all you want, funny boy," Xander said as he pointed his finger at Dan. "But don't ever make fun of the critical art known as lesbian love. It's the most favorite past time for men and women alike. Though, Will, what did this girl look like? For learning purposes only."

Dan snorted at the last line of Xander's speech. "Yeah, more like you wanting to dream of two girls doing it. As if you haven't seen enough of Sara doing it already."

"Well, it's different from what Sara does," Xander said. "Seeing Willow actually doing it would be way hotter... Owwwwww."

"That's what you get for saying and thinking that," Willow said as she looked smugly at Xander, who was rubbing his arm from Willow's punch. "And she was just a friend, who left and is now haunting my life."

"Lucky," Xander muttered as he led his hands in front of him in a motion of surrender and 'please don't hurt me.'

Willow rolled her eyes. She expected this reaction from Xander, as well as from Sara in more of a bitchy, girly way. "Xander, this is serious. I need to get away from them, for good. I can't return, or else I won't ever see you guys again."

"I know this guy who knows this place where we can hide," Xander said, getting serious now. "He can take us all there, because once you're gone they're gonna attack us to get to you."

"Let me just send a messenger bird to Sara," Dan said as he got up and strode into another room. "Where should I say that she meet us?"

"The regular place," Xander said confidently. "We're gonna just tell my friend that we need to all be together before we can go. But we have to met him at his usual spot before."

"Great," Willow said, feeling nervous as she clutched onto the straps of her knapsack.

"Ready," Dan said as he appeared with his own bag of stuff. "Let's head out now."

* * *

"We're here," Xander said as they stopped at the front of a noble family's home.

"Are you sure this is the right place?" Willow said as Xander knocked on the door. "What if they recognize me? Send me back to my home so that I have to go to the boarding school?"

"Don't worry," Xander said as he turned towards Willow. "I know this family, and they wouldn't do that."

A young servant boy opened the door.

"May I help you?" He asked shyly.

"Yes," Xander said. "May we come in? We're here to see Oz."

"O-Of course," The boy said as he opened the door and let the group in. "He is just in the Parlor Room, expecting you of course."

"Thank you," Xander said as he led the way into the Parlor Room.

"Hey, Oz man," Xander said as he shook hands with a smaller guy.

"Hey," The guy said. "Xander?"

Xander nodded, acting quite childishly in Willow's opinion. Oz scanned over Dan before gazing at Willow with light green eyes. Willow found herself staring back, feeling a little shaky even after he returned his attention to Xander.

"Now?" He asked as he strapped a bag on his shoulder.

"Yeah," Xander said as he clapped his hands together. "If you don't mind. My friend here, Willow, is running away. She only has today to do that."

Oz nodded, glancing once again back at Willow.

_'Why do I feel like this?' _Willow thought as she followed after the guys. _Why does this Oz make me feel this way?'_

Willow sighed. It was just another problem to deal with in her life.

* * *

**AN: Looking this over, both of us feel pretty good about this idea. The way we begin the chapters is by starting from where we had left off, making it easier for us to write the next one. **

**White-Owl: I especially like the scene between Xander and Dan and Willow in Dan's apartment. I laughed when you typed that and still do when I read it. I didn't have that scene. I was unsure of how to fill that space, so Snow-Tigress was like "How about we have something a bit funny, a bit true and see what happens."**

**Snow-Tigress: Thanks. I was laughing when I was typing it. I kept thinking that Xander would actually say something like that, and he probably has, in a moment like that. I know we rushed the Oz scene, I'm a little hesitant about waiting Willow/Oz scenes since I don't fully support it. Oh, and don't expect freaquent updates, life and all. **

Please R&R. Next chapter isn't close to finish yet. Just a heads-up.

**White-Owl + Snow-Tigress**


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